Earth is the best planet, Bezos says, unveiling climate commitment

Amazon has made its biggest climate commitment in the company's 25 year history.

"This is earth, it's the best planet in the solar system," said CEO Jeff Bezos, with an image of a globe beside him.

"We know that because we've sent robotic probes," he said. "It's the only good planet in the solar system and we need to take care of it."

In time for the Global Climate Strike on Friday, Bezos announced Amazon's goal to be net carbon zero by 2040. He made the announcement this morning in front of the National Press Club, starting off with an image of the globe beside him.

"Something interesting is happening," he continued. "The climate science community is actually surprised by how quickly things are changing."

He said that in addition to striving for net neutrality by 2040, Amazon wants to use only renewable energy by the earlier date of 2030. To help get there, Amazon is paying for $100 million in reforestation projects and will buy 100,000 electric vehicles for company use, and will regularly disclose the greenhouse gas emissions generated from Amazon infrastructure.

Amazon and partner Global Optimism are also launching The Climate Pledge. Companies who sign on commit to meeting the Paris Agreement standards 10 years early.

Hundreds of Amazon employees in Seattle have pressed the company to act on climate for years.

Kat Dellinger, a principal design program manager, said this is a big win for their employee movement.

"You know, we've been working as employees to ask our leadership to be bolder, to be leaders in this space," she said. "They're listening to us."

But employees are demanding more.

"It's still not the big, bold goals that we were hoping to set, of being carbon free by 2030," she said.

About 1,400 Amazon workers still plan to walk out Friday for the Global Climate Strike, with their event starting at the Amazon Spheres.

The workers walking out September 20 are calling for:

• Amazon to be bet carbon neutral by 2030
• No custom contracts between Amazon and with companies in the fossil fuel industry
• No Amazon funding of climate-denying politicians and lobbyists

Bezos, meanwhile, said he's excited about their new Climate Pledge.

He and Christiana Figueres at Global Optimism plan to ask other corporations to make the same commitment so they're not going it alone.

"Meeting these goals... is really something that can only be done in collaboration with other large companies because we're all part of each other's supply chains," Bezos said. "We have to work together to meet these goals."

Until now Amazon has not set a deadline for transitioning to renewables, nor has it openly shared its pollution levels.

This story is part of #CoveringClimateNow, a global media project to bring attention to the story of climate change. You can see all of KUOW's coverage here.